There are various means of communicating among people using computer-based technology. Such traditional forms include electronic mail, commonly called e-mail, which is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Another traditional form includes instant messaging, referring to real-time direct text-based communication between two or more people using personal computers or other devices.
A more recent type of communication using computer-based technology involves social networking A social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people (e.g., who share interests and/or activities). A social network service essentially consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services. Most social network services are web based and provide means for users to interact over the Internet. Social networking sites allow users to share ideas, activities, events, and interests within their individual networks.
Currently, a great deal of information is created using traditional communication tools, such as e-mail, but is not made available on social networks, including blogs, forums, communities, due to the manual complexity of recognizing important information nuggets (portions of information) and copying such information nuggets to an appropriate public venue for consumption by the greater social network. Furthermore, information nuggets provided on a social network (e.g., posted comments or status updates) are not easily reposted on other social networking feeds.
Hence, information is not easily exchanged from traditional forms of communication (e.g., e-mail) to more recent types of communication (e.g., social networks) or even among different social networking feeds.